All's Well That Ends Well
by thephonesarentworking
Summary: After Lisa's death at Canary Wharf, Ianto Jones travels the Universe as a mercenary. But after UNIT's request that he return to Earth, will Ianto settle, especially when he once again meets his fiancées killer? Some Ianto/Lisa, later Janto.
1. Chapter 1

**All's Well That Ends Well**

**Pairing: **LaterJack/Ianto  
><strong>Rating: <strong>M, but there will be some NC-17 parts later on. I will post warnings though, so you will be able to scroll past the higher-rated stuff if you want!  
><strong>Spoilers: <strong>All Season One, Two and Three, but with a slight twist! Also Doctor Who _Doomsday_ and _Army of Ghosts_.

**Summary: **After Lisa's death at Canary Wharf, Ianto Jones travels the Universe as a mercenary. But after UNIT's request that he return to Earth, will Ianto settle, especially when he once again meets his fiancées killer? Some Ianto/Lisa, later Janto.

I hope you enjoy it!

_Call me Ishmael  
><em>Herman Melville, _Moby Dick_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter One<strong>

Ianto woke up sitting against the door of the Secure Archives, which, he quickly realised, was the only intact structure left in the corridor. He scrambled to his feet (_daleks_)and staggered slightly (_cybermen_), leaning on the wall for support. His left arm was bent at a strange angle (_pain_) and he must have hit his head at some point during the battle, because…

_Lisa_.

Ianto pulled his fortunately intact phone out of his pocket and rang the number that had been on his speed dial ever since… (_don__'__t_), holding the mobile to his ear and praying for an answer even though he knew that calling was futile (_Lisa__…__topfloor__…__Lisa__…__pickup_). The sound of her voice (_beautiful_) sounded in his ear when the phone rang out, driving him back to his knees. He rested his forehead against the cool metal of the Archive door and cried quietly.

* * *

><p>Footsteps rang out from the next corridor (<em>cybermen<em>), and Ianto looked up, his face wet with tears. He reached up and pressed his palm to the recognition system next to the door, waiting impatiently while the painfully slow beam inched over his hand (_hurryquicklydanger_). The footsteps grew closer. The door gave an inviting beep and Ianto slipped through into the dark of the Archives.

* * *

><p>The footsteps paused outside the door. A hand was pressed to the pad, and Ianto held his breath (<em>pleasepleaseplease<em>) until the little beep that said "You are not authorised to enter the Archives" sounded. Ianto breathed a sigh of relief (_thankyou_) and almost smiled (_Lisa_) as he heard a muffled curse. The steps moved on, and Ianto flicked on the lights and logged on to a nearby computer to check the CCTV cameras (_please_), but there was nothing but fuzz and white noise from the whole top floor.

Biting his lip, Ianto opened a different search window and typed in one of the codes he wasn't supposed to know. His eidetic memory (_think_) told him what he was looking for and he opened a folder simply labelled "Weapons". The locations of the few things he thought would be useful against the daleks were quickly memorised, as well as those of some other items, just in case.

* * *

><p>Ianto emerged from the Secure Archives considerably bulked out with alien weaponry. He prepared to search the upper floors with his mind but something Torchwood had drilled into him during their "Telepath Training Course" stopped him: he didn't know if there were any able telepaths – or, God forbid, mind-breakers – among the invaders, and what of the footsteps he had heard earlier? No, better to risk his body than his mind.<p>

(_thinkLisathink_)

Ianto took the stairs two at a time, pausing when he heard voices on the top floor and the sound of… sobbing? And then a noise he had heard somewhere before (_rememberLisaremember_) – the sound of the Doctor's TARDIS dematerialising. Closely followed by a man's heartbroken voice in a drawn-out yell of, "NO, not again!".

More wary than ever, Ianto jogged through the corridors, searching for… (_thereLisathere_). He pushed his way through the sheets of plastic, steeling himself and blocking his mind as best as he could from the moans of pain and the cries for help (_Lisa_) as the half-converted people recognised him. At the beginning of the corridor, a gunshot sounded, then another and another. Ianto redoubled his speed, shoving against another layer of plastic, and…

_Lisa._

_LisanopleaseLisa._

* * *

><p>Ianto dropped to his knees beside Lisa's (<em>nonotdeadno<em>) body and gently placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Lisa?"

She opened her eyes.

"Ianto? Thank God. Hurts."

"Shhh. I'm here. I'll take care of you now."

He stroked her forehead (_beautifulLisaalivebeautiful_) and gently kissed her. She murmured something and smiled at him, then grimaced at the pain moving just those few muscles caused her. Ianto moved to get up (_painkillersinMike__'__sdesk_) but she shook her head slightly.

"Stay with me."

"Of course. Shhh. I've got you."

The tears were running slowly down his face.

"What're we going to do?"

_rememberhappyLisa_

_Our first date… She was beautiful. I was nervous. She looked like an angel in that candlelight._

_Slipping out whenever we could steal a moment… Bringing her coffee. Waking up next to her. Going to sleep next to her. Feeling so full, whenever I'm with her, and so empty when I'm not._

_Lisa._

"I'm going to figure out how to get this off you," he touched the metal casing around her body, "and then we're going to get married."

Another gunshot echoed through the corridor. This time, it was closely followed by a scream. And then total, ominous silence. Footsteps made their way around sheet after sheet of plastic (_dangerLisadanger_) and paused just a few metres away from where Ianto was crouched, hidden from the generator of the footsteps by one plastic sheet.

"Ianto? Scared. Get me out of here."

(_Protect__Lisa.__No!__It__might__be__help._)

"Shhh, wait. That's not a cyberman. It sounds wrong. Its help, Lisa, don't worry."

"Ianto, no! We should go."

"How?"

(_Lisa.__Beautiful._)

"Ianto, I love you."

"Shh, don't talk, save your strength. I…"

The footsteps had started again. Ianto looked up as a man rounded the last plastic sheet. _Captain__Jack__Harkness_, _Torchwood__Three,__Cardiff_, Ianto's brain supplied. The man raised a gun.

_Gun. Gun. No. Lisa!_

Ianto made to stand up, to throw himself in front of Lisa, to do anything…

The man fired once.

Lisa gave a gasp of pain.

"Ianto… I love you."

Her eyes closed.

_LISA_

The man turned slightly and pointed his gun at Ianto.

_Lisadeadno_

_Notdeadnoplease_

_Please_


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's Chapter Two! Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, and to everyone who added this story** **to their alerts!**

**I forgot to mention this last time, but **_italics _**are Ianto's thoughts.**

**Onwards! I hope you enjoy it...**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Two<strong>

Lisa

_LisanoLisa_

"Go. Get out. Or I'll shoot."

The man still had his gun pointed at Ianto. Straight at the centre of his forehead. The shot would be perfect. A clean death.

_Good._

"Last chance. Get out."

_Killme_

_Letmedie_

The man's eyes softened almost imperceptibly.

"Your world doesn't end with hers."

_Yes it does._

"I thought they were the Universe's most monstrous creation, but I was wrong." Ianto looked up at the man, his eyes full of hatred. "You're the biggest monster of them all."

"Get out. Now."

A single thought broke through the pain in Ianto's mind.

_Revenge._

Ianto forced himself to his feet, pressed one last kiss to Lisa's cold lips, and ran.

* * *

><p>Ianto sped back down the stairs he had climbed so desperately just minutes before.<p>

_Revenge._

_Leave this planet._

_Find something that will kill him once and for all._

He entered the Secure Archives and went straight to the very back wall, where a reinforced metal door stood. A simple keypad blinked at him from beside the door. Just another thing with a code he wasn't supposed to know.

_Revenge._

The door swung open on electrically operated hinges and Ianto slipped through. He found himself in a small room with shelf-lined walls filled with all sorts of alien artefacts. At the back of the room was a safe with a dial lock.

The numbers for the lock would be harder to remember: he had only seen them once, two years ago, and hadn't thought to commit them to memory, too caught up in the bliss of being with Lisa to care about things like codes.

He cursed his own stupidity.

Ianto delved deep into his memory, searching through the section of his brain he had marked _2004_. He shifted quickly through his memories, and…

There.

Ianto spun the dial three times to the left, ending on the first of the four numbers he had remembered. _Click. _Then two to the right. _Click. _Another one to the left, _click_, and half a turn to the right and _click__clunk. _The door opened.

Inside the safe sat a phone-shaped piece of alien tech.

One's version of UNIT's Indigo Project.

A translator. A communicator. But most importantly, a teleport.

_Revenge._

* * *

><p>Back at the computer bank next to the Secure Archives door, Ianto logged back on using Yvonne Hartman's password. The only password that would give him full clearance. He accessed the information files Torchwood had about him and altered them slightly.<p>

Just in case.

No need to leave it so that any competent hacker in the Universe could find out everything they wanted about him without breaking a sweat.

_Revenge._

When, according to the files, Ianto had been an able, but not exceptional, student; had had one minor conviction for shoplifting and was definitely not telepathic, he logged off.

Safe.

_Revenge._

* * *

><p>On leaving the Archives, Ianto crept through the corridors to his locker room. Every Torchwood employee had a locker, and this was especially useful when one, like Ianto, was an archivist, and tended to have sort of alien technology spray them daily.<p>

Ianto opened his locker. Its contents were as he had left them that morning. The ring he had meant to give to Lisa shone innocently in the dim lighting.

_Lisa_

_whydidyouleaveme_

He slipped it into his pocket and surveyed the rest of his locker.

Then he grabbed his backpack.

* * *

><p>Ianto could hear voices and footsteps coming from the corridor outside the locker room. He tensed as they approached the door and half-drew one of his guns as the door opened.<p>

A shout of, "Owen!" and the door closed again. Whoever it was moved on, leaving the locker room to be searched later. Ianto put on his half-full backpack and planned his next move: thievery.

* * *

><p>A couple of minutes later, Ianto was standing outside one of the doors to Torchwood One's bank. More information he wasn't meant to know gained him access, and after looking around the corridor to make sure he hadn't been spotted and followed, Ianto slipped inside.<p>

It was his first time inside the bank, and he was surprised at the sheer amount of money Torchwood had collected over the years. And this was only cash. Torchwood had billions more kept in different banks around the world. Racks filled with currencies from all over the Universe, the equivalent to thousands of trillions of Earth pounds, lined the walls and were arranged to create aisles one could walk between. The racks bore strange names: Ianto could see money from Malcassairo, Sontar, and thousands more, including the currency he was looking for, the one with the most mundane name. Galactic Standard. Ianto went over to the rack and removed what can only be called a small fortune.

He stuffed it into his backpack and left the bank.

* * *

><p>Ianto removed the Indigo Project from his pocket and looked at it. It was easy enough to operate due to One having the technology needed to almost complete their attempt at a teleport while UNIT only had the rudimentary beginnings of what was needed. He input the coordinates for Metebelis Three and moved his finger over to the "teleport" button.<p>

"Goodbye, Lisa."

He pressed the button and vanished.

_Revenge._


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello again! Sorry I took so long to update... Anyway, here's Chapter Three! I hope you enjoy it.**

_italics _**are Ianto's thoughts.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Three<strong>

Ianto found himself in a blue-tinted forest. He looked up at the planet's moon, shining brilliantly blue through a gap in the trees. The air was still, and he couldn't hear any of the sounds one would expect to hear in a forest.

He was on Metebelis Three, a planet he knew from Torchwood's records on the Doctor. The Time Lord had supposedly come here a couple of times, and… Ianto had just punched in the first coordinates that had come to mind.

_Lisa_

He fell to his knees. Tears – when would he stop crying? – started to fall. He knew about the dangers of this planet, about the snakes and the giant birds, and of course there would be more species that Torchwood hadn't found out about. But what was the point?

_Justwantittoend_

_No._

_I will kill him._

_And then I can die._

Ianto stood, hand on a tree for support. The teleport would need at least three hours to recharge. Three hours that he had to survive on a hostile planet.

He knew that Metebelis Three was the source of a type of crystal that could enhance intelligence and psychic powers and break mind control and hypnotic spells. Useful. He would have to try to get hold of one of those before he left. However, he also knew that those crystals were only found in the planet's deep caves. And, due to the high radioactivity of the crystals, searching for one would be suicide. If, of course, one didn't have protection.

Ianto pulled the Indigo Project – he would have to come up with a different name for it – out of his pocket and accessed one of the menus. A list of options came up: translator, communications, transport, and… there. Protection. He selected it, and smiled when he found he could be protected from radioactivity by the… He paused. He couldn't keep thinking of it as the Indigo Project. It made him think of… what he had left behind. It needed another name. Midblue, he decided. Another word for the colour indigo, and it was relevant in another, darker way. IBM defeated Gary Kasparov, the chess master, with a chess program called Deep Blue. He would kill Jack Harkness with the help of a gadget called Midblue.

* * *

><p>Judging by the position of the moon, there were only a few more Earth hours of night remaining. Ianto knew that staying outdoors during the day would probably lead to capture, either by human colonists, in which case he would probably be imprisoned, or by some of the wildlife, in which case he would almost definitely be eaten. He needed to find someplace secure to spend the day, and he was in a forest. A forest full of hostile animals. Ianto groaned. The outlook was pretty bleak.<p>

* * *

><p>Having decided that he was more likely to survive away from the forest floor, Ianto climbed one of the many trees that surrounded him. It was only when he was perched high in what resembled an oak tree that he realised that he hadn't thought to include food and water when he was hurriedly packing back on Earth. He didn't know where to find water that was safe to drink, and as for food… Most of the plants he was surrounded by were probably edible, but he had no way of knowing if they were poisonous.<p>

_Shit._

Ianto Jones would have to meet the natives. But for now, he needed to rest. Hopefully he would wake up if something dangerous approached.

* * *

><p><em>There was blood everywhere. The screams of the dying echoed through the corridors. Ianto ran towards the Secure Archives. Somewhere an alarm was going off. An alarm that sounded strangely like the cries of a bird.<em>

Ianto woke suddenly, the sound ringing in his ears. He jolted upright and looked around. Right above him was one of the huge birds the planet was home to. He screamed and scrambled down the tree, but before he got halfway he was buffeted by the wind from the bird's wings and he felt sharp claws closing around him. He struggled desperately, trying to reach his pocket, where he had put Midblue before going to sleep, but the position of the bird's claws meant that he was fighting a lost cause. He tried to get free, but stopped when he realised that struggling would probably make the bird drop him. But would that be a worse fate than being eaten? Or worse, being left to starve in the bird's nest before being slowly killed or, God forbid, eaten alive?

He felt the bird slow its flight and looked ahead. They had reached a rock face, and the bird was preparing to alight in what seemed to be a small natural cave. Ianto heard shouts from below, and looked down to catch a glimpse of some humanoid forms running towards the rock face before he was thrown to the side of the cave and everything went black.

* * *

><p>When Ianto came to, he was being shaken by a man who was babbling something in a strange language. The bird had gone, but Ianto had no doubt that it would soon return. He pulled Midblue out of his pocket and selected "Translator". The man suddenly started babbling in very refined English.<p>

"Get up, hurry! The volucris will come back soon. Come on!"

Ianto stood up shakily, and almost fell as his vision swam. The man grabbed his arm and started pulling him towards the door.

"Wait! Who are you? What is the volucris? Where are you taking me?"

"No time now. Hurry!"

Ianto staggered to the entrance of the cave, supported by the man. At the precipice, the man crouched down, taking Ianto with him. Tied to a nearby outcrop was the top of a rope ladder. The man looked at Ianto.

"The volucris takes many people: you are not the first I have rescued. Quickly now. I will climb down first. Follow me as fast as you can."

Ianto nodded, his head clearing slightly. He stood up, relieved to find that his legs could support his weight. The man swung himself out of the cave and began to climb down the ladder. Ianto stepped closer to the edge and paused.

Can I trust him?

_No choice._

Ianto swung himself over the edge and followed the man down.


End file.
